Galway Hurling thread - 3 Like(s)

Galway456 (National) - 30/04/2026 21:08:46

Leitrim GAA thread - 2 Like(s)

gaelsboy (National) - 30/04/2026 21:54:19

Louth GAA thread - 2 Like(s)
Just saw Dublin team named. That a serious strong team they have and makes we wonder how the hell are we favourites. We could be in for tough evening in portlaoise.

red.dragon (National) - 30/04/2026 23:57:29

Leitrim GAA thread - 2 Like(s)

ThePowerhouse (National) - 01/05/2026 07:59:11

Leitrim GAA thread - 2 Like(s)

3rdmidfielder (National) - 01/05/2026 10:18:49

Donegal GAA thread - 2 Like(s)

greenfan (National) - 01/05/2026 10:44:48

Galway Hurling thread - 1 Like(s)

Viking66 (National) - 01/05/2026 15:22:34

Wexford Hurling Thread - 1 Like(s)

Viking66 (National) - 01/05/2026 15:17:41

Louth GAA thread - 1 Like(s)

ColmFlaherty (National) - 01/05/2026 15:07:35

Westmeath Football thread - 1 Like(s)
Great win over Meath in the 1/4 finals but it has come at a huge cost for 2 players and maybe 3 who will now miss their club championships.Coror McCormack has a badly broken leg and Luke Loughlin has a bad hamstring injury.Matty Whittaker not 100% either by the sound of things.I suppose these are the breaks you get playing sport but nonetheless it carries a lot of mental stress when you cant be involved on the pitch
Best wishes to Luke and Conor on a speedy recovery and hopefully Matty is just a precaution.

Bruno@1 (National) - 01/05/2026 13:52:50

Louth GAA thread - 1 Like(s)

Lúla571210 (National) - 01/05/2026 13:50:12

Roscommon GAA thread - 1 Like(s)
Declan Bogue.The 42
IT WOULD LEAVE an accountant scratching their head.
How is it that Roscommon remain a force in Gaelic football, living wildly beyond their means among the game's elite?
They head into a Connacht semi-final against Mayo this Sunday in Castlebar (throw-in 4pm) off the back of one of their most impressive league campaigns ever, though even that finished with the ugly tinge of a 4-26 to 2-11 loss to Mayo in the same venue.
That said, who would bet against Roscommon repeating what they did to Mayo in the Easter Sunday Connacht championship in 2023, when they caught the newly-crowned league winners 2-8 to 0-10?
At the top end of Gaelic football, there are two counties that the figures simply should not add up for: Roscommon and Monaghan.
The Roscommon population was 70,259 in the 2022 Census, an 8.4% increase from when it was last taken in 2011. The next most populous county, Cavan, has nearly 82,000, leaving Roscommon more akin to Sligo, Monaghan, Fermanagh, and Carlow - all within 10,000 of each other - before the next big dip to Longford, 31st in the list at 46,751.
You'd want to be careful basing everything on these figures, but it's worth noting that Mayo have a healthy figure of 137,970 themselves.
As we say, it shouldn't work, but by Jove, it does.
Culture
How Roscommon manage it is based on a number of factors. Culture is not just a buzzword that's having a moment right now.
It relates to the people involved, who they have in pivotal positions. It blends then into maximising the low numbers available. It overcomes some glaring shortcomings in infrastructure, and it gets around the lack of obvious football nurseries in schools.
Most evidently, it emerges in a deep love that Roscommon people actually have for their county. If you take a county such as Tyrone, who Roscommon knocked out of the 2024 All-Ireland series, so much of their fanbase has become club-first, then county-focused when they look like doing something.
Roscommon is different. That's why you can hardly stop the likes of Hollywood big shot Chris O'Dowd from yakking on about his days as the minor goalkeeper.
They are football mad in this county," says Padriac Mitchell, the county's head of games development, and a Western Gaels clubman. "It probably helps that we are a largely rural, farming, agricultural based community. That tends to lend itself very well to the GAA."
"We are fairly well-supported all of the time. We don't go to the heights of some of the biggest counties.
There's just a huge passion in this county for Gaelic football. A huge passion for GAA."
The county board feed off that passion and dynamism. Their fundraising abilities are legendary. Across 2018 and 2019, they held a 'Win a house in Dublin' fundraiser that brought in €943,000.
Encouraged by this, in 2020 they raffled off a Ballymore house in London and scooped up €905,000 profit.
Only last January, they had another go at it, selling 80,000 tickets for a home in Athlone and the profit margin was €650,000.
It helps that the county is almost exclusively a monocultural sporting society. There is no rugby club in Roscommon, though that doesn't stop others heading to play for Buccaneers, Creggs and Ballyhaunis.
Roscommon hurling had its moment in the sun and around 30 years ago, might have aspired to be on a par with the likes of Laois and Carlow. In 1976, Tremane were the Connacht club champions, and a year later, Four Roads were the champions, albeit Galway's Kiltomer were suspended by their own county board.
But essentially, hurling in the county isn't as strong as it was, and while there are some well-organised soccer clubs, it doesn't have mass appeal.
Infrastructure
Roscommon do not have a training complex of their own.
At this stage, most counties have them and are constantly updating them. For example, Tyrone are only after fitting an infrared sauna at their premises in Garvaghey in pursuit of the most cutting-edge element of recovery.
Kerry have Currans. Derry have Owenbeg. Donegal have Convoy. The continuing development of Offaly is linked closely with the establishment of their Faithful Fields project.
"Who wouldn't benefit from a training centre?" asks Mitchell.
"If you look at all the competitions - minors, 20s, the seniors in the NFL - it's all played in the worst period of the year for weather, without question.
"We've just the worst winter after another. So a centre of excellence would be welcome but you look at the underage and they have been really, really competitive over the last number of years.
"So we have to maximise what we have and aspire towards the things that we don't have.
Right now, the Roscommon minors were based out of Creggs National School, just over the Galway border.
The senior team rent out the St Brigid's facilities in Kiltoom. The arrangement is said to cost around €30,000 for three months.
While it would be preferable to have a facility like this, it's not completely essential. You only have to look at Armagh and their success while operating out of the modest surroundings of Callan Bridge, although work on a multi-million base in Portadown is underway.
"My biggest fear of not having a centre of excellence is not the senior county teams, it's more the participation side of things," says Mitchell.
"We just don't have the space for the kind of events we would like our kids to have."
Coaching
"I would say we have people who are really into coaching," says Mitchell.
"We have a small number of them, but they are really well-educated coaches who are upskilling themselves all the time, really into it. Really honest fellas.
"And we have had them in the minors and U20 levels, there are a number of them in with the seniors at the moment. I'd say we have tried to maximise what we have."
Other counties have made hay through having - by luck or design - excellent coaching in schools.
It's slightly different in Roscommon, and in Connacht in general. Not since the heyday of St Jarlath's Tuam, a former boarding school, has the Hogan Cup come west.
The last one of their total of 12 came back in 2002; the one before that was 1994 and the one before that again was 1984.
Outside of the Jarlath's triumphs, you have to go back to 1977 when St Colman's College, Claremorris claimed a Hogan Cup for Connacht, and 1957 when it was the turn of St Nathy's in the disputed territory of Ballaghaderreen that it came west.
Connacht schools tend to be lower in numbers than other provinces. Roscommon CBS, immortalised in the Saw Doctors' song 'Broke My Heart' about a pass that never came for an open goal, have under 400 boys attending.
However, they are reigning champions of the Paddy Drummond Cup (B Football) after they beat Patrician High School Carrickmacross in last year's final.
A great deal of their underage talent find themselves just outside of the county, in Athlone, Ballinasloe, Lanesborough and Carrick-on-Shannon. It's estimated that around 50% of pupils don't attend school in Roscommon.
Mitchell refuses to bemoan this fact, instead seeing low numbers as an opportunity that every potential footballer is mapped and gets plenty of action with their clubs.
"We have some excellent clubs, but there are a small number of them. While we have 26 football clubs in the county, we only have 18 minor clubs left with amalgamation and combination teams. It's a small number of clubs," he says.
"But it is a very tight-knit community in Roscommon and there are positives in that. I speak to counterparts of mine in other counties and they do have challenges in the bigger counties. Even though their numbers are greater, there are challenges trying to cover them with support.
"We do put a lot of emphasis on the support that coaches get. Our education programmes are formal and informal. We want to make sure that everybody who is willing to give their time voluntarily into coaching, has that support."
Management
Mark Dowd might be the lowest-profile of any intercounty manager in Ireland. And that suits him perfectly.
He is the perfect example of those who Mitchell says patiently upskill and wait for a chance. Twenty years ago, along with Stephen Bohan, he was a coach of the Roscommon minors, managed by Fergal O'Donnell, who won their first All-Ireland minor title since 1951, beating Kerry in a replay.
O'Donnell, Dowd and Bohan later managed the Roscommon senior team that won the Connacht title in 2010.
Dowd went on to manage the minors from 2011 who won Connacht, the U21s who repeated that feat in 2015, and he was a coach to Anthony Cunningham when they won the senior title in 2019.
As senior manager now, he has his Strokestown colleague John Rogers as a young, hungry coach, and Ian Daly, who managed his club Michael Glaveys to the All-Ireland intermediate club final which they lost to The Moy of Tyrone.
They make concession to outside help in the form of Jason Sherlock, who knows what a successful set-up looks like.
****
Roscommon recognise their shortcomings. They know their limitations. And yet they make it work because they find the right people.
It is an intoxicating mix of people who shun the limelight and are in it for the right reasons.

spion7 (National) - 01/05/2026 12:50:32

Galway Football thread - 1 Like(s)

galwayman2 (National) - 01/05/2026 12:38:33

Galway Football thread - 1 Like(s)

Galwayman67420 (National) - 01/05/2026 12:27:29

Louth GAA thread - 1 Like(s)
What's the likelihood of Lennon or Tadhg Mc starting or playing this week?

ColmFlaherty (National) - 01/05/2026 10:45:32

Donegal GAA thread - 1 Like(s)

dgcrusader (National) - 01/05/2026 10:30:36

Dublin GAA thread - 1 Like(s)

Viking66 (National) - 01/05/2026 10:15:32

Wexford Hurling Thread - 1 Like(s)
Since 2017 especially the rivalry has being healthy between both teams and very little separating the teams.First of all i cant stress this enough and people need to remember this. Keith took on a job that didnt exactly have a list of candidates. Davie inherited liam dunnes team who like keith now had a few tough days but like any rebuild thats part of the journey. Young lads will be key players in a few years. Keith knew when taking the job that Dara Egan has squeezed the last drop out of Davies team and but that was it. Keith immediately lost mogie,hanlon,Keefe,Morris,all these players who were leaders but he wasn't going to turn down the chance to manage the county. These couple of years are a rebuilding job. Decent minor and u20 teams this year. Ive no doubt the next manager will benefit from all of Keith's hard work and criticism which isnt all his fault. Unfortunately he will lose fanning,donahoe,jippo,chin jacko and foley who are all over 3o. When chin was held the attack was toothless. The amount of defenders coming back to hep carey it was easy tie lee up cause others werent working hard enough making themselves available. I had this debate with a few kk men about the lads this year unavailable but he said kk are down huw lawlor,billy ryan,tommy walsh,adrian mullen and harry shine. This certainly isn't a vintage kk team but are they going for 6 or 7 leinsters in a row? Wexford won in 2019 and its still spoken about. I met tom Dempsey at half time he was very apprehensive at half time because kk could of had 2 goals and 5 or 6 points more while foleys goal came from young bolgers mistake. He said the writing was on the wall and maybe at ht more could of being done to try prevent the inevitable onslaught because kk were nervous after the hammering the week before. Its a while since I seen a good kk crowd at a match and the half time thing was a magnificent idea. Other counties take note. Bad days happen to all teams but on side im thinking oh no. We robbed antrim,lucky against down,lost to a clare b team and weren't convincing against kikdare. Offally will definitely target the wexford match and they have some nice hurlers who will like the dry sod. The other part tells me drew with dublin few weeks ago,timing the run,caught a bit off guard against kk but ive absolutely no doubt there will be a big improvement. Players will be more upset than any supporter so expect a reaction because its coming. Lee needs to come out further he is too easily marked inside

Slowandshortsighted (National) - 30/04/2026 23:36:17

Galway Football thread - 1 Like(s)
Why isnt Barry Mchugh getting a look in at all with the seniors? Especially with Daly back into the fray. They work immcaculately together for the club with Dalys and also the likes of O Conghaile's kickpassing ability and Mchughs sheer class when it comes to point scoring I dont see how a team could deal with a full forward line of Mchugh finnerty and Mcdonnacha. We have a set of forwards capable of winning an all Ireland. All about picking the right team

Galwayman67420 (National) - 30/04/2026 22:46:50

Roscommon GAA thread - 1 Like(s)
Kerry it is for our U20s in the All-Ireland semi-final after their hard fought win against Cork tonight.

Up in the air yet if that game will be played Saturday May 9th or Wednesday May 13th. We always play Kerry in Munster for these type of game how about a proper neutral Leinster venue this time?

The_analyser (National) - 30/04/2026 22:10:21